In one of its more specific aspects, this invention pertains to the conversion of fermenter effluents into materials suitable as viscosifiers for such things as waterflood oil recovery fluids.
The preparation of thickening agents for use in preparing viscous waterflooding solutions from heteropolysaccharides is well known. The heteropolysaccharides are produced by bacterial action upon a variety of carbohydrate substances. Usually the fermenter liquor as recovered from the fermenter requires some treatment to produce solutions or solids useful for increasing the viscosity of fluids, such as injection water, employed in secondary oil recovery.